Seeds, Seeds, and More Seeds!

To start off our week, we went on a seed hunt.  The kids cut open various fruits and vegetables looking for seeds.  We discovered that seeds come in all different shapes, colors, and sizes.  Some seeds you can eat and some you don't.   We planted various seeds and look forward to seeing what sprouts.  

We also had fun sampling the various fruits and veggies.  Unfortunately, I was so busy exploring with the kids, I forgot to take pictures!  Ask your child about the seeds we discovered.

After writing a class seed story last week, the kids had fun creating their own, original seeds stories, on seeds, of course!  While each story is different, they all have the same components of how a seed grows into a flower and then produces more seeds.

The seed stories are strung on green yarn and will go into a cute little seed packet the kids will make tomorrow.

In Discovery today, we read about the parts of a flower and created a collage flower using yarn for the roots and actual flower seeds for the seeds!  After making the collage, the kids used their National Geographic Explorer magazine to label the parts of a flower.

Seuss-riffic!

This week we had so much fun learning with Dr. Seuss!

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish inspired pictures.

I see a Fillie on Millie

After reading There's a Wocket in My Pocket, we changed around the beginnings of our names to create these fun pictures!

I see a Femiya on Emiya!

Searching the hall for stars with HFW written on them.  This activity is inspired by The Sneeches.

If you were a Thing from The Cat in the Hat what would you do?

I would eat cake all day.

Lorax yourself picture frame!

Do you like the Wocket in Leon's Pocket?

After reading so many rhyming Dr. Seuss books, we had to write one ourselves!  Be sure to read this fun book with your Dr. Bug!

Celebrating 100 Days of School

The 100th Day of School is such a big celebration in SK!  All year long we work on counting how many days we've been in school and finally, we made it to 100!  Anna had the honor of being the Days in School Counter this week - such an exciting job!

Next, we went to the Crazy Critters classroom to join the rest of SK for a story, sitting still for 100 seconds (quite a feat with 66 SKers!) and instructions for the party.

Trying to figure out which bag has exactly 100 items.  (it's the middle one with 100 paperclips if you're wondering)

Counting by 5's to 100 by coloring in coordinating squares. 

Working with Mrs. McLaren from Computer on a hundreds chart app.

Sorting and graphing the bags of 100 items we brought in for Show and Tell.

100 pieces of snack!!!!!

Stringing Fruit Loops to 100.  The pasta acted as separators so the kids could keep track and count by 10's.

Making a fun picture using the number 100.

Coloring a hundreds chart by 5's, 10's, and 2's.

Doing 100 exercises!

Counting out 100 cents to trade into a dollar.  THEN, you got to "buy" something at Mrs. Donald's Dollar Store!

The 100 crowns were worn proudly throughout the day!

Whew! I'm tired!  But, I wonder what the rest of the year will hold....

Blubbery

As part of our Arctic Animal unit, we made little polar bears to talk about blubber and how the animals keep warm.

To get started, we explored the concept of blubber with the famous blubber glove.   Instantly, the kids understood the purpose of blubber.

Then, we created these cute little polar bears covered with blubber and fur.  I created a simple black line of a polar bear using clip art.  The kids cut out the bear and laid it on a craft mat.

First, a thick layer of blubber was painted on. The blubber is actually plain old white school glue.  The kids loved painting it on and talked about how thick their "blubber" was.

Next, a fluffy layer of fur was added.  We used batting as the fur but stuffing and cotton balls would also work.

A button eye and felt nose were added using the blubber glue.  This touch gave each bear its own personality.

Once dry (they did take a day to dry due to all the blubber!), the class worked together to make a super cute bulletin board with icebergs in the Arctic Sea.

Harriet's Halloween Candy

A favorite Halloween book is Harriet's Halloween Candy.  Harriet has a good time trick-or-treating and comes back with a big bag of candy. 

She begins to sort her candy all different ways, including her favorites!  In class, we have fun working in pairs to sort a big bag of Halloween candy too.

 The pairs worked together to find different ways to sort the candy.

At first, it's easy - you can sort by color, type of candy, and size.  However, after awhile it can get a little tricky.  This is where you have to get really creative.  Kids were sorting by smell, clear and not clear packages, and hard and soft candy.

After sorting for awhile, I gave them a  new challenge - to divide the candy between them equally.  It was fun to see how they approached the activity.  Some kids began to pass them out one by one while others just took a bunch and counted them.  Finally, they all arrived at equal amounts.

Unless, of course, there was a problem - one extra piece of candy.  What do you do with the extra piece?  Everyone brainstormed ideas such as splitting it in two, giving it to someone who doesn't have candy, or just throwing it away! 

What would you do with an extra piece of candy? 

Ghostly Guts

 Great big globs of greasy, grimy ghostly guts;

 Cobwebs hanging over us;

 Pumpkins out on every street.

 Kids in costume calling out for trick-or-treat.

 I think it's Halloween!

Make ghostly guts at home by mixing a glob of glue with a glob of liquid starch.  OOOHHHHH....guts!